The Sabbath

8 Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in the way.9 He leads the humble in what is right,
and teaches the humble his way.10All the paths of the LORD are steadfast love and faithfulness,
for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

11 For your name’s sake, O LORD,
pardon my guilt, for it is great.12 Who is the man who fears the LORD?
Him will he instruct in the way that he should choose.13 His soul shall abide in well-being,
and his offspring shall inherit the land.14 The friendship of the LORD is for those who fear him,
and he makes known to them his covenant.

God’s promises are here mixed with David’s prayers. In the middle of the psalm, he mediates upon the promises…for the promises of God are not only the best foundation of prayer, telling us what to pray for and encouraging our faith and hope in prayer, but they are a present answer to prayer.

The more we see of the heinousness of our sins the better qualified we are to find mercy with God. When we confess sin we must aggravate it.

We value the promise by the character of him that makes it.

We should fix our thoughts, and act our faith most on those promises which suit our present case.

He will teach sinners in the way because they are sinners, and therefore need teaching.

The meek will be he guide, the meek will he teach, that is, those that are humble and low in their own eyes, that are distrustful of themselves, desirous to be taught, and honestly revolved to follow the divine guidance.

Many things occur to make us uneasy but there is enough in the covenant of grace to counterbalance them all and to make us easy.

4 Responses to The Sabbath

I’m not sure if I understand what this statement is saying… Does it mean that when we come before God in confession, we need to exaggerate our fallen state? My experience is that our sins are usually heinous enough without us magnifying them, though I guess it is our tendency to dramatize (hopefully unintentionally if at all) our need for forgiveness.

Tim,
Henry does use the word aggravate a lot but the meaning has some differences from modern use. He published the commentary in 1706. In looking at older uses of the word I found in the 1913 Webster dictionary that aggravate means: To make worse, or more severe; to render less tolerable or less excusable; to make more offensive; to enhance; to intensify. “To aggravate my woes.” –Pope.
In American Dictionary of the English Language 1828 it gives these definitions: 1. To make heavy, but not used in this literal sense. Figuratively, to make worse, more severe, or less tolerable; as, to aggravate the evils of life; to aggravate pain or punishment.
2. To make more enormous, or less excusable; as, to aggravate a crime.
3. To exaggerate.

I do think that we often try to lessen our sin and Henry wanted us to make sure we did see how heinous it is.